Overweight and obesity status from the prenatal period to adolescence and its association with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in young adults: cohort study.

Abstract

To examine the associations of maternal and child overweight status across multiple time-points with liver fat content in the offspring during young adulthood. Cohort study. ELEMENT Cohort in Mexico City. Pregnant women with singleton births (n=97). We quantified hepatic triglyceride content (liver fat content) by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) and conventional T2-weighted MRIs (3T scanner) in 97 young adults from the ELEMENT birth cohort in Mexico City. Historical records of the cohort were used as a source of pregnancy, and childhood and adolescence anthropometric information, overweight and obesity (OWOB) were defined. Adjusted structural equation models were run to identify the association between OWOB in different life stages with liver fat content (log-transformed) in young adulthood. Maternal OWOB at the time of delivery was directly and indirectly associated with the liver fat content in the offspring at young adulthood. Seventeen percent of the participants were classified as having NAFLD. We found a strong association of OWOB between all periods assessed. Maternal OWOB at time of delivery (β=1.97, 95% CI 1.28-3.05), and OWOB status in the offspring at young adulthood (β=3.17, 95% CI 2.10-4.77) were directly associated with the liver fat content in the offspring. Also, maternal OWOB was indirectly associated with liver fat content through offspring OWOB status. We found that maternal OWOB status is related to fatty liver content in the offspring as young adults, even after taking into account OWOB status and lifestyle factors in the offspring. There was an association between pre-pregnancy overweight and the development of NAFLD in adult offspring.